When the eldest Beastie Boy grows a serious gray beard, you know the film business is calling, and today brings news that Adam Yauch aka the rapper known as MCA has started an indie film distribution and international sales company called Oscilloscope Pictures. Anyone who’s grabbed the nachos and grape soda and plopped down to the visual wonders of Criterion’s Beastie Boys: Video Anthology or watched the seminal rappers’ delirious concert film Awesome: I F***in’ Shot That! knows this news is cooler than “Fred Kelly as Bunny.” And Oscilloscope’s picture is big: Yauch wants to distribute two to 10 films (what an estimate, eh) in the company’s first year.

His partner in the company is former ThinkFilm VP David Fenkel. Fenkel will run this new division of Yauch’s umbrella company, Oscilloscope Laboratories, from its headquarters in downtown Manhattan, alongside former ThinkFilm dude Dan Berger. What kinds of films will the company be high planes drifting the planet to market and distribute theatrically? They want narrative features and documentaries, and they’re looking to funnel funds into unfinished films. Their first film is said to hit theaters by summer ’08, with an official announcement going out within a month’s time.